Con Artists Making Millions With Scareware Software
The BBC reports that criminals are making millions from fake antivirus software. The software known as scareware or scamware frightens users into downloading it. Sometimes consumers are even tricked into paying for the software by the frightening virus warnings that appear in pop-up messages on their computers.
Symantec says more than 40 million people have fallen victim to the "scareware" scam in the past 12 months.
The download is usually harmful and criminals can sometimes use it to get the victim's credit card details.
The firm has identified 250 versions of scareware, and criminals are thought to earn more than £750,000 each a year.
The scareware not only charges users to download but it also may install a malware program that steals your passwords and credit card information. The BBC says some of the downloads will even take over your computer. In some of these scareware cases the con artists are holding people's machines at ransom and not giving them back control of their computers until they pay a fee.
"[They] could hold your computer to ransom where they will stop your computer working or lock up some of your personal information, your photographs or some of your Word documents.
"They will extort money from you at that point. They will ask you to pay some additional money and they will then release your machine back to you."
The scam is hard for police or other agencies to investigate because the individual sums of money involved are very small.
A report from Symantec says 43 million people fell for scareware scams from July 2008 to June 2009. The bottom line here is do not download software just because a pop-up message tells you to do so. A website called Get Safe Online provides helpful information about how to protect your PC. They also have an article on anti-virus software here, which lists some reputable brands.
